IED in west Kirkuk kills, wounds seven Peshmerga

KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – A roadside bomb in western Kirkuk Province on Saturday killed and injured several Peshmerga soldiers, said a Peshmerga Commander.

The Improvised Explosive Device (IED), planted by the Islamic State (IS), targeted a Peshmerga vehicle in an area located between Ismael Awa and Kharabarut, a Peshmerga Commander told Kurdistan 24.

“One of the Peshmerga soldiers named Mahmoud Aziz was martyred,” the Commander said. “He was a retired Peshmerga from Sayid Sadiq [in Sulaimani Province].”

He also mentioned one of the six wounded Peshmerga was transferred to a hospital in Erbil due to his unstable health condition.

The extremist group has repeatedly attacked Peshmerga forces in the west and south of Kirkuk as IS continues to lose territory in the Nineveh Province.

Peshmerga are one of the most efficient ground troops defeating IS, according to former US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.

So far, over 1,600 Peshmerga have been “martyred” while fighting the militant group since June 2014, and over 10,000 more have been injured.

Last week, Peshmerga forces rescued an ethnic Arab police Lieutenant Colonel who had been kidnaped by IS in Kirkuk, along with some of his family members.

A group of IS militants attacked the Malha village near the town of Dibis located in the northwest of Kirkuk.

The extremists kidnapped Lt. Colonel Farhan Hama Zirgan from the Kirkuk police and seven of his sons and cousins.

A security official in Dibis told Kurdistan 24 the militants had beheaded and executed the Lt. Colonel’s seven family members.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany